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The Future of the Internet – 7 Big Predictions of 2020

The thing about technology is that it is always evolving, and nothing evolves as fast as the Internet. Today, the internet landscape is not just about computers, smartphones, laptops and tablets anymore. In a relatively short period of time, the internet and World Wide Web are creating great surprise to access the new ideas, thoughts, knowledge and more information. Here are 7 major predictions of what is yet to come with the Internet in 2020 – which is not that far off from where we are today.

1. Over 5 billion people will use the Internet by 2020

Started of 2015, the number of internet users across the world is a massive 3.14 billion. It was 2.94 billion a year earlier. That’s massive, considering the world population is just over 7 billion. So, if this trend continues, we expect there to be 5 billion active internet users by 2020 – which means a vast majority of the world’s population will have access to internet.

2. Developing countries will witness the biggest growth

Over the next 10 years, much of internet’s growth will come from emerging nations. In fact, there isn’t much potential for growth in North America, which is close to saturation point, with an internet penetration of over 80%. Africa has the lowest internet penetration of just under 10%, and is also likely to see the biggest growth. Asia has a penetration of around 25%, and will witness a strong growth as well, especially in countries like India, where the internet is all set to take off in a big way.

3. The Internet of Things will change the way we look at the Internet

As critical infrastructure gets built up, we expect to the internet to become more than just a network of computers – it will, in fact, become a network of devices, or “things”. As of now, there are 13.4 billion “things” or devices connected to the Internet. By 2020, this is expected to go up to a massive 38.5 billion. Indeed, the number of “things” that are connected to the internet will be in multiples of the number of internet users. Also artificial intelligence and big data will make people more aware of their world and their own behavior.

4. The Internet will be wireless

Here’s the most important prediction about the future of the internet –a vast majority of internet users will access internet on their mobile phones. With technologies such as 4G and 5G already available, we expect mobile internet to be superfast. In most Western countries, 4G is already the standard technology, and it is expected to be the same in emerging countries such as India as well. We expect most of the world’s population to have access to 4G and a number of nations to already be on 5G by 2020.

5. Everything will be in the cloud

Almost every computing service will be available in the cloud. Cloud computing is expected to be massive by 2020. In fact, cloud computing is already a HUGE business, which has generated more than $45 billion in revenue this year. A lot of work is being done to build a massive cloud infrastructure. By 2020, most users and applications will be mapped to the vast cloud infrastructure. Cloud-based services will dominate the software industry in 4 to 5 years time.

6. The Internet will be eco-friendly

One big change we expect to see is that the future internet infrastructure will be more energy efficient and enhance global connectivity than ever before. The spread of the Internet will fostering more positive relationships among societies. Already, a lot of internet companies have chosen to get their power from renewable energy source. In fact, “Green Hosting” is alreadt a big thing today. Some of the biggest web hosting companies in the world, such as HostPapa, have gone “green” and use the most environmentally friendly solutions for their infrastructure. The shift to eco-friendly solutions will only get faster as energy prices start becoming more and more unaffordable.

7. Hackers – there will be more of them

Not everything about the future is going to be rosy. By 2020, the number of hackers active on the internet will be at an all time high. Every year, we see more and more malicious code being released into the internet. By 2020, the attacks will become better targeted and more sophisticated. Cyber security will improve as well, but may not be able to keep up with the increasing complexity of the cyber threats.

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